Foothill, Amador Valley to play for NCS softball title

Pleasanton’s softball powers will have one final tussle. It should be, as the kids say, epic.

Foothill, The Chronicle’s top-ranked team, got a three-hitter and nine strikeouts from Nicole May to post a 2-0 win over second-seeded Heritage-Brentwood in the North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs Wednesday.

The third-seeded Falcons (24-3) get their crosstown rival, second-ranked Amador Valley, for a fourth time after the Dons also went on the road to defeat top-seeded Freedom-Oakley 3-0

Amador Valley (22-5-1) rode the left arm of Northwestern-bound Danielle Williams, who fired a two-hitter with 15 strikeouts.

Like a classic Western showdown, the teams will meet at high noon Saturday at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill for the title.

The teams split 1-0 gems before Foothill executed the best single-game performance in the 32-year coaching career of Matt Sweeney — “in any sport,” said the highly successful football coach — during an 8-0 win for the East Bay Athletic League playoff championship.

It was a loss that didn’t sit well with Amador Valley, especially Williams, who Wednesday recorded her 17th shutout of the season. In three NCS games since that defeat, she has allowed four hits in 21 innings and struck out 47.

On Wednesday, she also homered.

“Danielle is a very composed young lady, but after that loss, she was furious,” Amador Valley coach Teresa Borchard said. “She’s been dialed in since. She wants it bad.”

As do all the Dons, who took a 1-0 lead off 2016 Chronicle Metro Player of the Year Vanessa Strong on an RBI single from Maddie Hildebrand in the second. Following Williams’ solo blast in the third, Allyson Kim singled home another.

Williams did the rest against a Freedom team that finished 21-2. Was Borchard surprised Freedom and Heritage were seeded ahead of the Pleasanton teams?

“I guess a little, but it didn’t bother me that much,” she said. “We got an extra game out of it and we’ve built some good momentum.”

Sweeney, whose team got RBI singles from May and Gianna Lyng, said the seedings were a “slap in the face not only to us but Amador. For us both to come out here with road wins proves that the two best teams are definitely in the final.”

As strong as Williams has been, Sweeney has the utmost confidence in May, a 5-foot-10 sophomore who has committed to Oklahoma. She retired 16 straight starting with two outs in the first.

State championship: Menlo School-Atherton’s Max Ting fired a 2-under-par 69 to finish tied for second in the state tournament at San Gabriel (Los Angeles County) Country Club, leading his team to a third-place finish.